Today, Monday November 18, 2013, the federal court docket reflected for the first time that there is a settlement in the Johns & Johnson ASR metal on metal hip implant litigation. The New York Times and Bloomberg Financial News had reported based upon unnamed sources a $4 billion dollar settlement of the 12,000 lawsuits brought against DePuy and Johnson & Johnson for failures of the ASR metal on metal hip implants. There had been no confirmation of any settlement by Johnson & Johnson, DePuy or any of the lawyers negotiating the deal. Further, the court filings had not provided any confirmation of a settlement. However, several scheduled jury trials involving the ASR had recently been settled or postponed leading to speculation that there had been a “stand down” of litigation in anticipation of a settlement.

A hearing was scheduled for tomorrow November 19, 2013 at 4:30pm EST but not subject matter has been indicated. It was widely believed that this hearing might be to discuss or release information about a settlement of the litigation. The late hearing time is unusual and it is possible that the hearing was scheduled for late in the day because the financial markets would be closed. Such a large settlement would include information that could influence investors decisions about Johnson & Johnson and public release of the information is regulated by securities laws to prevent insider trading on the stock.

This afternoon the federal court’s docket sheet reflected that a sealed order was filed re: Settlement Oversight Committee. The Order was filed by U.S. District Judge David A Katz who is the judge assigned to the ASR litigation. This is the first official confirmation that there is a settlement in the ASR litigation.

The DePuy ASR was recalled in 2010 as a result of high failure rates caused by metal leaching from the implants. The leaching metal causes a condition called metallosis. Metallosis is damage to tissue and bone in the hip compartment from chromium and cobalt leaching from the implants. Most of the lawsuits that have been filed against DePuy allege that the metallosis has cause the hips implant to fail and require a revision surgery to replace the hip implant with a new implant of a different design.
Our law firm is continuing to accept metal hip implant cases involving all manufacturers. Call us at 800-748-7115.
Below is the federal court docket sheet confirming the settlement: